Israeli Apartheid Week 2014 Full Schedule

THE SIXTH ANNUAL EDMONTON ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK MARCH 10 – 14, 2014

*** ALL CAMPUS EVENTS FREE ***

Palestine Solidarity Network presents a week of presentations, workshops, film screenings, and cultural events in solidarity with Palestine and to raise awareness around the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid.

All IAW 2014 events are open to everyone, and are free of charge. We look forward to seeing you there!

The term ‘apartheid’ is an Afrikaans word adopted by the ruling National Party to refer to legalized racism in South Africa from 1948 until the democratic multi-racial elections of 1994 ushered Nelson Mandel to power as President. In addition, apartheid is a term enshrined in international law as a crime against humanity, and it is also a term that has been used to refer to policies and practices which have generated racialized inequality in many diverse countries. When applied to the state of Israel, however, the term is mired in contention, signaled by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2014 state visit and speech in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). This talk examines what is at stake in the name ‘apartheid,’ and assesses the relevance of the South African experience and apartheid analysis to the Israeli context and to Palestine solidarity.

About the speakers:

Dr. Abigail B. Bakan is Professor and Chair of Humanities, Social Sciences and Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her research is in the area of anti-oppression politics, with a focus on intersections of gender, race, class, political economy and citizenship. She is also the co-author of several articles on the Israel/Palestine conflict and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Her articles have appeared in journals including: Race and Class, Signs, Politikon, Feminist Review, Social Identities, Rethinking Marxism, Socialist Studies, Atlantis, and Studies in Political Economy.

Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban is Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research interests centre on the Canadian and comparative dimensions of ethnic and gender politics; nationalism, globalization and processes of racialization; immigration policies and politics; surveillance and border control; and citizenship theory. In addition to her published scholarly articles and book chapters she is co-editor of Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power (2011), co-editor of Politics in North America: Redefining Continental Relations (2008), editor of Gendering the Nation-State: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives (2008), and co-author Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity and Globalization (2002). Dr. Abu-Laban serves on the editorial board of Canadian Ethnics Studies/Études ethnique au Canada and has served on the Board of the Directors of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA), as well as the CPSA Diversity Task Force.

Join us at Rouge Lounge for our annual night of spoken word and performance poetry relating the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. This night will leave you inspired to share the stories of struggle with others and to be part of the growing movement against the injustice of apartheid in Palestine.

The night will feature a Breath In Poetry Slam night featuring local poets starting at 9:00. After the Slam will be a set of Poets Against Apartheid starting at 10:20 featuring local poets performing original works of poetry on Palestine, as well as readings in both Arabic and English of works by Palestinian poets.

If you are interested in performing during the Artists Against Apartheid set, please email Sara at shussein07@gmail.com.

$5 donation at the door will support the Poetic Aid fundraiser on Friday, March 14. Sorry, no minors.

Since its launch in 2005, the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) has become a powerful global movement to compel the Israeli government to “recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.” Modelled after the successful global movement of BDS against apartheid in South Africa, the BDS campaign is the most tangible means to support the Palestinian people. Join us for a screening of the documentary The Bottom Line, about the successful economic campaign against South Africa and a discussion about how to support the BDS movement against Israeli apartheid.

The Bottom Line, part of the acclaimed documentary series Have You Heard From Johannesburg, tells the story of the first-ever international grassroots campaign to successfully use economic pressure to help bring down a government. Recognizing the apartheid regime’s dependence on its financial connections to the West, citizens all over the world, from employees of Polaroid to a General Motors director, from student account-holders in Barclay’s Bank to consumers who boycott Shell gas, all refuse to let business with South Africa go on as usual. Boycotts and divestment campaigns bring the anti-apartheid movement into the lives and communities of people around the world, helping everyday people understand and challenge Western economic support for apartheid. Faced with attacks at home and growing chaos in South Africa, international companies pull out in a mass exodus, causing a financial crisis in the now-isolated South Africa and making it clear that the days of the apartheid regime are numbered.

Over 5,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons: of all ages, genders, and political affiliations. Palestinian prisoners are subject to a separate legal system – the Israeli military courts, which convict 99.74% of the Palestinians brought before them, on charges ranging from membership in one of countless prohibited organizations, to incitement, to participation in resistance. Night-time arrest raids, extended interrogation, medical neglect and physical abuse are common. Palestinians can be held without charge or trial for years at a time. At the same time, Palestinian prisoners have been a center of resistance to Israeli occupation, apartheid and racism: engaging in hunger strikes and other struggles that have captured the attention and the solidarity of Palestinians and of people around the world. Join us to discuss who the Palestinian political prisoners are – and what we can do to support their struggle for freedom.

Dr. Qumsiyeh will talk to us about the current situation, share his vision of a future for all the people who live in the land of Canaan, and address how Canadians can help to bring about a new situation of peace and justice.

“This is not mission impossible,” John Kerry, the US foreign Secretary, announced early this year, speaking of his latest effort to rejuvenate the Palestinians/Israeli peace process.

Dr. Ageel will address the questions of where this latest round of talks is headed. What makes Kerry optimistic about reaching a framework agreement before May 2014? And why do many people disagree with him? And above all, how many plans, road maps, proposals, initiatives, processes, solutions, accords, and framework agreements do Palestinians need to have? Why have endless rounds of peace talks never led to peace? And finally, what is the future for the Palestinian/Israeli conflict: a two-state solution, one-sate solution or apartheid?

About the speakers:

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He was chairman of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and serves on the board of Al-Rowwad Children’s Theater Center in Aida Refugee Camp. He published hundreds of refereed articles and several books including “Mammals of the Holy Land”, “Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” (English and Spanish) and Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment (Arabic, English, French, forthcoming in Italian). He also has an activism book published electronically on his website. His main interest is media activism and public education. He gave hundreds of talks around the world and published over 200 letters to the editor and 100 op-ed pieces and interviewed on TV and radio extensively (local, national and international).

Dr. Ghada Ageel is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research interests focus on rights-based approaches to forced migration, Palestinian refugees in comparative perspective, oral history, women’s studies, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the permanent status issues involved in the Middle East peace process. Dr. Ageel’s work has been widely published in several newspapers, magazines and journals worldwide, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Hill, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Journal for Palestine Studies, Palestine Chronicle, Occupation Magazine and many Arabic newspapers throughout the Middle East.

In addition to her book with Dr. Ibrahim Abu Jaber, Maisam Eid, et al “Jurh Al-Nakba: Part 1” (The Wound of Nakba, Part 1), Um Al-Fahem, Centre of Contemporary Studies, 2003, Dr. Ageel is currently working on a book project: The Palestinian Nakba and Israeli Apartheid : The Law and The Experience. She is also active in Faculty4Palestine-Alberta.

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The Palestine Solidarity Network is a non-profit, grassroots collective aimed at advocating for and upholding the human rights of Palestinians in the face of ongoing oppression, occupation, racism, and discrimination, both in occupied Palestine and in the diaspora.